


Almost Home

by JordannaMorgan



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Gen, Libraries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 18:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21396763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JordannaMorgan/pseuds/JordannaMorgan
Summary: Edward is in his natural environment.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 8, fan_flashworks





	Almost Home

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Almost Home  
Author: Jordanna Morgan  
Archive Rights: Please request the author’s consent.  
Rating/Warnings: G.  
Characters: Edward.  
Setting: General.  
Summary: Edward is in his natural environment.  
Disclaimer: They belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I’m just playing with them.  
Notes: Written for the prompts of “Whisper” at Fan Flashworks, and “Writing, Text and Quotes” at Genprompt Bingo. It could also be seen as filling the “Ed/Books OTP” prompt that I myself posed several years ago.

* * *

When Edward Elric started awake, the first thing he saw was a long streak of ink across the page of his notebook—caused by his own hand when the rhythmic scritch of pen against paper had lulled him to sleep.

It was hardly the first such mark to be found amidst his notes. During his travels as a State Alchemist, he had often tracked down rare alchemic textbooks in small local libraries just like this, and sat studying them until the time escaped him. Now it must have been well past noon…With a thoughtful smile he set aside the pen still clutched between steel fingers, and raised his head for the first time in hours to look around at the tranquil environs.

High shelves standing solidly in rows like a forest of tree trunks, heavy with books whose pages were their leaves. The rustling of those pages in the hands of other patrons, as if stirred by a gentle breeze. A whispered conversation at the reference desk, like the low murmur of a brook beneath the boughs. Earthy smells of parchment and old leather, mingled with more subtle floral notes of tea.

Maybe that mirror of nature was why libraries were the only man-made place that enticed Ed to fully let down his guard.

For all he had lit the blaze himself, _home_ in Ed’s mind was still the memory of a house now turned to ashes; and he was resolved that he would not make a new home until his promise was fulfilled. When Alphonse was once again flesh and blood, only then would he seek a permanent place of rest from that journey.

Yet on occasion, sheltered in a warm and calming wilderness of books, where for just a little while he felt at peace…

For now, maybe that was just close enough.

* * *

_2019 Jordanna Morgan_


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